EMDR Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a highly evidence-based therapeutic approach that helps individuals process distressing life experiences and memories, particularly those which may feel traumatic or stuck. It is a structured approach which uses the body's natural healing mechanisms via bilateral stimulation (e.g. eye movements or tapping) — and thus less of a standard talking therapy — to support the re-processing of distressing moments of a person's life so they are no longer disturbed by them. Originally developed for trauma and PTSD in the 1980s, it now has evidence for being effective for a wide range of psychological difficulties, and many people find it useful for deep and profound healing and transformation.

Attachment Focused EMDR

Attachment Focused EMDR is an extension of the original EMDR approach (thus, not a new or separate therapy in itself) which focuses on a person's early relational experiences and processing traumas which have occurred in childhood, in their attachment relationships and through key stages of child development (thus known as developmental trauma). These traumas are likely to have caused impact on parts of the brain and nervous system before full development of words and language, therefore a key part of this therapy is offering healing to the wounded child through the bilateral stimulation method of EMDR.

Schema Therapy

Schema Therapy is an integrative and relational type of therapy centred on the idea that when a person's various emotional needs are not sufficiently met in childhood, they go on to develop specific 'schemas' (i.e., deeply ingrained maladaptive patterns) and 'parts' of themselves (e.g., child, critical, and coping parts) which often lead to long-term emotional difficulties and problematic cycles in how that person treats themself, in their relationships with others, and unhelpful ways of coping. Schema Therapy is a compassionate approach to understanding and healing early life experiences, and building up healthy and functional 'adult' parts of us, creating deep and sustained lifelong change. While there are shorter versions of Schema Therapy, more benefit will come through longer-term work.

Compassion Focused Therapy

Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) is one of the advances of the original CBT approach, with links in neuroscience and attachment theory, and thus still has some structure to therapy but can integrate more experiential exercises. CFT is designed to help those who struggle strongly with difficult emotions such as shame, guilt and disgust, as well as are very critical or blaming towards themselves and/or others, which can lead to a range of problems like anxiety and low mood. The approach is centred on developing compassionate understandings of self, others, and the world and, in turn, compassionate resilience through learning specific soothing emotion regulation skills. From here, individuals decrease negative self-talk and become more self-compassionate, as well as kinder with others, leading to improved emotional wellbeing, psychological functioning, and relationships.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a structured, highly evidence-based therapy that focuses on the interaction between our thoughts, emotions, body, and behaviours — and how particular negative thoughts contribute to cycles of emotional distress and unhelpful behaviours. CBT involves taking a goal-oriented approach centred on identifying problematic thinking patterns, testing and challenging thoughts, and developing alternative ways of coping to break these cycles and improve distress. CBT has the flexibility of short, medium and long-term formats, and has been found to be effective for anxiety, panic, depression and more.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is one of the original models of psychological therapy and focuses on understanding how our early relationships, past experiences, and unconscious mind influence our current problems and patterns. Gaining conscious awareness of this can result in deeper understandings of the self and lasting change. This approach is more unstructured and non-directive, meaning you have the flexibility to bring your own focus to each session and will involve more link-making and explorative/reflective processes. There is also an active consideration of the therapeutic relationship occurring between client and therapist, to give further insight into recurring relational patterns, as well as corrective experiences through the relationship.